The watercolour fountain, Sarkis, 2003

On the occasion of the 8th edition of Art at the Artand the curators Elio Grazioli and Hou Hanru they invited Sarkis to create a work for Poggibonsi, The watercolour fountain

"Sarkis was born in Istanbul in 1938 and has lived in Paris since 1964. Active since the 1960s, he took part in When Attitudes Become Form (1969), and has participated in numerous international events, including two editions of Documenta in Kassel, three editions of the Venice Biennale, and many other exhibitions around the world. His greatest quality as an artist is his ability to perfectly combine his cultural origins with the contemporary tradition of Western art, to which he adds local cultural elements from the places where he is invited to exhibit and intervene. He does the same with the blending of ancient and contemporary techniques, and with references to original archetypes, not without allusions to recent episodes in art. Because of these characteristics, he moves today between art that has found in anthropology an essential core of its research and the so-called ‘relational’ art, which sees the active involvement of viewers as an intrinsic mode of the work.

The project for Arte all’Arte revisits one of his recent favorite themes: the relationship between color and transparency, and therefore light, depth, immateriality, transition, and transformation—elements he has long explored through the use of watercolor and glass. These ancient techniques, yet rich in contemporary implications, are treated in a wide variety of forms, culminating in the memorable series of short videos 25 Films de Saché, 1997–98, a small compendium of the possibilities of his work.

In una piazza di Poggibonsi, già luogo di incontro cittadino, Sarkis dispone una fontana sui generis, composta cioè di 12 piccoli bacini che possono essere usati da chiunque lo desideri come contenitori per la realizzazione di acquerelli. Un rito, un gioco, un impegno creativo che ha in Sarkis il primo animatore e l’insegnante del primo corso e che resterà poi stabilmente a disposizione della popolazione.”

Arte all’Arte VIII, 2003